Robert Sietsema at Bowery Diner; Lauren Shockey at Brasilina

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema questions whether Bowery Diner really qualifies as a diner: "There are whelks, for God's sake -- just try requesting those in a Greek diner -- served raw or cooked with garlic butter. You'll also find periwinkles, Jonah crab claws, oysters, scallops, clams, mussels, snow crab 'clusters,' and calamari, variously available in cooked or uncooked form."

Lauren Shockey stops by Brasilina in Hell's Kitchen and decides that only its limey caipirinhas are worth going back for.

Adam Platt samples the locavore cuisine of Danish chef Mads Refslund at Acme: "Some of Refslund's seasonal creations feel stagy and slight (it's the middle of winter, after all), but there's a rigorous, just-plucked freshness to the best of his cooking that separates Acme from the fashionably rustic restaurants that keep popping up, relentlessly, around town." [New York]

Pete Wells visits Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria and asks: "Is it crazy to fall for a restaurant because of a handful of chickpeas?" [New York Times]